The present invention relates to conveyors, and more particularly to conveyors including devices for contacting the material being conveyed to perform work on the material.
In numerous manufacturing procedures, it is necessary that materials be crushed, pulverized or otherwise attenuated. For example, in a process using bulk material, it is often necessary to break-up any lumps before the bulk material can be used in a downstream operation, or be packaged. In another example, it is also desirable to break, or crush defective or worn-out products to salvage re-usable materials therefrom, or before they can be disposed of. In yet another example, in some processing of foodstuffs, such as nuts and corn, it is required that the shells be removed from the corn kernals or nuts.
The present invention recognizes these requirements and provides for the crushing, breaking, or otherwise attenuating a material as it is being conveyed from one site to another.